A1 · Nouns: gender, plural, compounds
The plural
one word, nine endings
There is no default. The plural is learned with the noun, like the gender.
English has one plural ending and a dozen survivors. German has five endings — -e, -er, -(e)n, -s and none at all — each of which may or may not add an umlaut, which makes nine patterns in practice. There is no rule that picks between them for an unknown noun.
So the plural is learned with the word, the same way the gender is: der Tisch, die Tische. Dictionaries and the word lists on this site give it for that reason, and a noun learned without it is half learned.
Two facts make it manageable. Every plural takes die, whatever the singular gender was, so the article side of the plural is free. And gender predicts the ending fairly well: almost all feminine nouns take -(e)n, which is a large part of the vocabulary settled in one line.
Die Form
| -e, often with umlaut | der Tisch – die Tische, die Hand – die Hände |
| -er, umlaut where possible | das Kind – die Kinder, das Buch – die Bücher |
| -(e)n, no umlaut ever | die Lampe – die Lampen, die Frau – die Frauen |
| -s, mostly foreign words | das Auto – die Autos |
| no ending | das Fenster – die Fenster, der Vater – die Väter |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
Feminine nouns take -n or -en almost without exception, and never an umlaut.
die Blume – die Blumen, die Zeitung – die Zeitungenthe flower – the flowers, the newspaper – the newspapers
Nouns ending in -er, -el or -en usually add nothing.
das Fenster – die Fensterthe window – the windows
Every plural takes die, whatever the singular was.
der Mann – die Männerthe man – the men
In the dative plural the noun itself adds -n, unless the plural already ends in -n or -s.
mit den Kindernwith the children
Genauer hingesehen
Why -s exists at all
The -s plural is not native to German. It arrived with borrowed words — das Auto, das Hotel, das Team, der Chef — and it stayed because it does something no other German plural does: it works on a word whose shape gives no clue what else to do with it.
That is why it is now the plural for abbreviations, for family names (die Müllers), and for anything new. A German speaker meeting an unfamiliar noun will reach for -s, which makes it the closest thing the language has to a default — but only for words that feel foreign, which is why applying it to ordinary German nouns sounds badly wrong.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the noun is a weak masculine — Student, Kunde, Herr, Junge, Nachbar
the plural is -(e)n and so is every case except the nominative singular.
der Student – die Studententhe student – the students
These nouns decline on the noun rather than only on the article.
-
the noun exists only in the plural
there is no singular to learn — Eltern, Ferien, Leute, Geschwister.
Meine Eltern kommen am Freitag.My parents are coming on Friday.
They name things that come as a group, and German never made a singular for them.
Woran man es erkennt
- -e
- -er
- -en
- -n
- -s
- die
- Umlaut
Beispielsätze
Die Tische stehen im Garten.The tables are in the garden.
Wir haben zwei Kinder.We have two children.
Die Blumen brauchen Wasser.The flowers need water.
Beide Autos sind alt.Both cars are old.
Er spricht mit den Nachbarn.He is talking to the neighbours.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Die Bücher liegen auf dem Boden.The books are lying on the floor.
Wie viele Zimmer hat die Wohnung?How many rooms does the flat have?
Die Häuser hier sind sehr alt.The houses here are very old.
Sie hat drei Schwestern.She has three sisters.
Die Preise sind gestiegen.Prices have gone up.
Zwischen den Bäumen steht ein Zelt.There is a tent between the trees.
Die Ärztinnen haben eine Besprechung.The doctors have a meeting.
Wir haben keine Gläser mehr.We have no glasses left.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The umlaut is part of the plural, not decoration
In <z>Hand – Hände</z> and <z>Buch – Bücher</z> the vowel change carries as much of the plural as the ending does, and in <z>Vater – Väter</z> it carries all of it — there is no ending at all. English has the same thing in <z>foot – feet</z> and <z>mouse – mice</z>, which are the last few of a pattern German still uses in quantity.
der Vater – die Väter, die Tochter – die Töchterthe father – the fathers, the daughter – the daughters
-
Measurements stay singular after a number
Masculine and neuter units of measure do not take a plural after a number: <z>zwei Bier</z>, <z>drei Stück</z>, <z>fünf Euro</z>, <z>zehn Grad</z>. Feminine units do: <z>zwei Flaschen</z>, <z>drei Tassen</z>. It is the one place where the gender changes what a number does.
Zwei Bier und drei Flaschen Wasser, bitte.Two beers and three bottles of water, please.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
The dative plural adds an -n to the noun itself, on top of whatever the plural ending already is. It is the last surviving noun ending in German and it is easy to leave off, because it does almost no work — but it is heard. The exception is a plural that already ends in -n or -s: mit den Autos, not Autosn.
Every plural is die. In the dative it gains an -n.
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